For the past four years, our trail designers have been working on an active transportation trail through Kansas City that will eventually connect 103rd Street at Alex George Lake to the Missouri River. While some parts involve new, wider paths over existing sidewalks, some parts are a lot trickier.

Construction crews worked this week to place an 80-foot pedestrian bridge on a dime, just west of 51st and Hardesty and over a stream feeding the Blue River. The steel and wood bridge, trucked in from Alexandria, Minnesota, weighs nearly 28 tons and had to fit perfectly to the mounting bolts on each abutment, with a total margin of error of about two inches. And it fit like a glove.

Up next is a section of the BRT that finds its way through Swope Park, navigating close approaches with the Blue River, active railroad tracks and the Kansas City Zoo property.